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Tuesday, February 24, 2026

Jane Eyre with Aimee Lou Wood in the works

On Tuesday, February 24, 2026 at 7:29 pm by M. in ,    No comments
Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights is no longer the only Brontë in town. A new adaptation of Jane Eyre (as a TV adaptation) is being developed, according to Deadline:
Deadline hears that The White Lotus and Sex Education star Aimee Lou Wood is attached to star in a new TV adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel Jane Eyre.
Emmy nominee Wood will play the indomitable heroine in the buzzy adaptation, which we understand is being produced by UK powerhouse Working Title and is penned by Miriam Battye, a WGA Award winner for her work on Succession.
We hear there are advanced discussions with a UK broadcaster to join the project. (Andreas Wiseman)

Plenty of other news outlets repeat the news: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Harper's Bazaar... 

8:15 am by Cristina in , , ,    No comments
The New York Times has an article on 'What Brontë Country Tells Us About Britain Today'.
Nestled among the wide-open moors of West Yorkshire sits Haworth, the English village where Emily Brontë wrote “Wuthering Heights,” the gothic romance that inspired Hollywood’s latest steamy adaptation.
The cobblestone streets and rugged hills here still conjure the hardscrabble life and wild forces of nature that underpin the novel.
As it did in 1847, when the book was published, the region offers a window into the stark contrasts and economic struggles that challenge Britain. Now, as then, social and demographic change, rising food prices and widening wealth inequality are driving populist political movements, calls for reform and spasms of unrest.
Haworth is eight miles from Bradford, a town that Emily’s father, Patrick, visited often in his role as an Anglican priest. In the mid-19th century, Bradford was a wealthy, fast-growing center of textile manufacturing, home to powerful parliamentary lawmakers and a destination for tourists and traders.
The city’s decline is typical of the hollowing-out of many postindustrial towns and cities in northern England, fueling the poverty and frustration that are shaking up British politics. [...]
One afternoon in November, tourists gathered to listen to a banjo player outside the Villette Coffee House in Haworth. Couples walked their dogs. Parents struggled to push their strollers along the deeply rutted cobblestones.
Bradford’s woes can seem far from here.
Many people believe, incorrectly, that the Brontë siblings grew up in a remote, backward place.
As Juliet Barker writes in “The Brontës,” Haworth was actually “a busy, industrial township” with 13 small textile mills in the area when Patrick Brontë became curate in 1820. The village had its own surgeon, a wine merchant, a watchmaker and three cabinetmakers. It was overcrowded, however, and had primitive sanitation. An 1850 report found that more than 2 in 5 children died before their sixth birthday and average life expectancy was under 26 years.
While Bradford now struggles economically, Haworth became a destination for literature fans around the world, exemplifying the value of Britain’s heritage to its tourism industry, which employs over a million people and contributes more than $100 billion a year to the economy.
A local couple spent one Saturday stringing bunting from the wooden beams of Haworth’s recently refurbished old schoolhouse building, where Charlotte Brontë, Emily’s older sister and the author of “Jane Eyre,” had her wedding reception in 1854. Down the street, tourists quietly filed through the Brontë home that is now a museum. Outside, the moors stretch as far as the eye can see, rolling hills of dark green and brown divided by bare stone walls. (Michael D. Shear)
Daily Mail reports that 'Wuthering Heights fans go WILD after discovering Cliff Richard giving Jacob Elordi a run for his money with his own questionable Yorkshire accent to play Heathcliff in 90s musical: 'This is what Emily Brontë would have wanted!''
Wuthering Heights fans have gone wild after Cliff Richard's 90s musical based on the novel, which he co-wrote and starred in as Heathcliff, has gone viral.
Aussie Jacob Elordi may be smouldering on screen in Emerald Fennell's new big screen adaption, but first came Sir Cliff, now 85, with his own strangely wig and questionable Yorkshire accent. 
Gone is the crooner's squeaky clean persona to play the rogue in the 1996 show which was a huge hit with fans but loathed by critics, who hit out at Cliff's casting. [...]
Taking to TikTok fans joked: 'This is what Emily Brontë would have wanted!': 'Cliff heard a Yorkshire accent, once, in a dream': 'I'm screaming!!': 'Sorry but this is what all movie to musical adaptations sound like to me': 'Why didn't they call it Heathcliffe Richards?': 'I am only surprised that Cilla Black wasn't cast as Cathy'. (Geraint Llewellyn)
A contributor to Salon wonders about all the hate for the film.
That’s a real shame, considering how interesting Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” is if you can divorce yourself from the film’s source material, as its writer-director does with palpable glee. Her take is a maelstrom of splendid beauty and doomed love, colliding at a feverish pace that makes the fidelity to Brontë’s book moot. This is Fennell’s vision, her creation. Its bones are the same, but its cells are different. Why, then, is Fennell’s adaptation of a classic met with such ruthless scrutiny, when another recent Jacob Elordi-starring remix on an equally beloved, oft-remade tale — Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” — was lauded by both critics, viewers and awards bodies alike?
Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” pivots the novel toward fantastical anachronism and open-hearted femininity, while del Toro’s “Frankenstein” is a dour, dark spin that blunts the sentimentality of Mary Shelley’s book for an adaptation that plays more like a superhero origin story. Both filmmakers chose to make Elordi their 6 ‘6 muse, using his imposing stature to their gain — strong and rugged as Fennell’s Heathcliff, while towering and intimidating as del Toro’s Creature — and the cinematic story arcs for both characters regularly deviate from their respective novels. Despite these and other glaring similarities between these films released just four months apart, only one movie was met with virulent animosity from the jump, and somehow, it wasn’t the worst movie of the two. This isn’t just the latest layer in the longtime double standard for films made by women compared to those made by men; the reaction also indicates a frightening lack of curiosity among stubborn viewers unwilling to consider a reality beyond a prevailing narrative. [...]
That may be the most disturbing aspect of all. Whether people enjoy Fennell’s work is a matter of personal taste. But refusing to keep an open mind and stay curious about a film simply because of a filmmaker’s reputation for (relatively tame!) smuttiness is detrimental to the cinema that Fennell’s critics purport to uphold. “Wuthering Heights” may not be to many people’s taste, but what Fennell has done is irrefutably interesting. She’s made something different from your typical adaptation, a movie that brings a fresh perspective to a very old and frequently retold tale. How very frustrating that so many people have closed off their minds and hearts to the film before they’ve even seen it, or before the credits rolled. Such baseless reticence only makes us more defiant and less inquisitive. Social media might be the modern watercooler — the dominating force of cultural conversation — but taking its narratives as gospel without considering art for ourselves only reinforces our worst instincts and upholds the systems that a surprising, offbeat and altogether different film like “Wuthering Heights” rallies against. (Coleman Spilde)
Thred has an article on how 'Wuthering Heights yearning feels out of step with Gen Z dating'.
Wuthering Heights may be romantic for some, but in today’s culture, no one ought to regard the relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff as something to aim for; it’s at best absent, and at worst innately toxic. (Annie Dabb)
Marie Claire thinks that 'Isabella and Her BDSM Ribbons Are What Hold "Wuthering Heights" Together'.
It’s Alison Olivier’s character, Isabella, in particular, whose journey embodies the symbolism behind the ribbons. At her residence, Thushcross Grange, the wealthy, sheltered young woman spends her days in a room dedicated to sashes and bows, making creations like dolls crafted from human hair. While her proclivities may make her appear naive, her girlishness ultimately comes to represent her own self-discovery and how she revels in control. [...]
In the second part of Isabella’s arc, her hair is now worn loose, but bows and rosettes still line her gowns. Oliver plays the character like she’s constantly frothing at the mouth, eager for something more, but she’s still the woman with the ribbon room in these fetishistic scenes; she’s just now allowed herself to come undone. (Sadie Bell)
A contributor to Her Campus discusses 'The Withering of Wuthering Heights: Deviation from Brontë’s Original Vision'. Another contributor to Her Campus reviews the film. Woman Alive uses the film to discuss 'Faith, truth and the temptation to romanticise in Wuthering Heights'. Herald Sun has 'Acclaimed sex historian,' and author Dr Esme Louise explain whether the film is historically accurate. El Diario (Spain) discusses Heathcliff's race. El Confidencial Digital (in Spanish) has an AI-illustrated article on the filming locations of Wuthering Heights 2026. The rise of 'Brontë beauty' on Body and Soul. The Irish Independent suggests readers 'Go wild with the Wuthering Heights trend' when it comes to interior decoration. Independent reports that 'Corsets are back in fashion – and it’s all because of Wuthering Heights'.

We have some more reviews of Wuthering Heights 2026:

If one can separate Fennell’s adaptation from its source material, it’s altogether captivating. However, the film’s title, enclosed in quotation marks, emphasizes an important point: It is only “Wuthering Heights” in essence. Fennell’s version raises a consequential question — if you replace a story’s substance, is it still the same story? How much can creative liberty justify before an adaptation becomes a rip-off? (Abbey Conley)
Actually, the whole film is probably best enjoyed as a kind of offshoot of Barbie. Call it “Wuthering Heights Barbie,” featuring the famous doll boxed up in a tightly corseted nineteenth-century gown with BDSM accessories like whips and hangman’s nooses and horse’s bridles. It’s also sold with an elaborate new Barbie’s Dreamhouse, the glamorously dreary Gothic version, with a dark-haired Ken in heavy sideburns grinning fondly at Barbie from the doorway. And Fennell has thought of practically all the sex positions those blank-eyed dolls can be put into, with their arms that go up and down, and bendy joints, and heads that turn all the way around! (Eileen Jones)
“Wuthering Heights” is the rare studio film where the below-the-line work doesn’t support the vision — it is the vision. Having been introduced to Emerald Fennell’s filmmaking through that Promising Young Woman panel, watching the team she has built and the scale at which they now operate, this is exactly the trajectory you hoped for. The moors look magnificent, the obsession feels real, and the craft is impeccable. This is a film made by people who care deeply about every frame — and it shows. (Byron Burton)
What fascinates is not whether this adaptation is faithful, but why it feels so precisely calibrated to now. We live in a culture that celebrates emotional extremity, provided it remains interpretable and contained. We want intensity, but we want distance from its consequences. We want the experience of witnessing emotional chaos without surrendering to its destabilising force.
This film reflects that instinct. It offers devastation as an encounter rather than a transformation. Something to observe, not something that alters you. In doing so, it adapts not just Wuthering Heights, but our diminished tolerance for emotional risk. The original story confronted readers with emotional violence that refused resolution or distance. This version allows you to remain safely outside it.
I left impressed by its craft, but more struck by what its restraint represented. The film doesn't weaken the story so much as reveal the conditions under which stories now exist. They must be legible. They must be shareable. They must survive translation into image.
The moors remain wild. What has changed is our willingness to be undone by them. (Anoushka Madan)
Fennell’s masterpiece (so far) is her 2020 thriller “Promising Young Woman” starring Carey Mulligan. That film earned Fennell a well-deserved Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Her ultra-weird 2023 offering “Saltburn” (also starring Elordi) was a letdown. “Wuthering Heights” falls somewhere in the middle. Unfortunately, the best compliment I can pay “Wuthering Heights” is to say it’s not as bad as you’ve heard. But I realize that is faint praise, at best. (Andy Ray)
I feel this film is adequately okay. It is not a conventional period drama, but it’s also not a smoothly organized one (or a carefully designed one) either. (Casey Allen)
The film’s abrupt ending inverts our expectations, circling back to Cathy and Heathcliff in their youth. They are bonded from the very beginning until the very end. Cathy is headstrong in defending Heathcliff against her father, even when it scares her. Heathcliff is guarded and protects Cathy, even when it costs him. We see just how much each of their inner children resurface in their adult relationship: Deep down, they are emotionally sensitive, although they fight to appear otherwise, both to outsiders and each other.
In my viewing experience, I felt compelled to consider the notion of forgiveness. At one point, Cathy says to Heathcliff, “You’re too late,” and I was left asking: When is it too late, and where do forgiveness and regret intersect? I find myself still pondering these questions as I write this, a few days after my viewing. I’m unsure whether I appreciate or detest these unanswered questions, but perhaps that’s what Fennell’s “‘Wuthering Heights’” is all about — an invitation to face those haunting thoughts, whether we like them or not. (Olivia Barkwill)
For those avid Brontë fans willing to loosen their grip on strict fidelity, the film offers something compelling - a strikingly immersive and carefully curated vision that asserts its own identity. [...]
It's dramatic, gruesome, and confrontational - Fennell immediately signals that this will not be a museum piece adaptation. [...]
These changes transform ambiguous cruelty into explicit manipulations, heightening emotional stakes and making the story more immediate and cinematic for modern viewers. Fennell clearly favors intense layered drama. (Nawal Ahmad)
At the time of its 1847 publication, Brontë’s novel was considered brutal and coarse, devoting unconventional time to themes of female liberation and the racial hierarchy of late Georgian England. In her film adaptation, Fennell has stripped the story of most of this core meaning. Instead, she injects “Wuthering Heights” with excessive and shiny contemporary touches as though they automatically make the film subversive and thought-provoking for modern audiences. (Isabella Konecky)
Fennell set out to recreate how the novel felt at 14: intoxicating, dangerous, erotic. And at moments, she succeeds. It comes across very differently from Brontë's original novel, which endures by being about two forces so volatile that they destroy everything around them, including themselves, not because of how sexy or shocking the story is, as Fennel depicts in this film adaptation. (Nora Siddique)
Conversely, Fennell’s adaptation is messy and watered down, all tied up in a pretty little bow that fails to mask its disingenuity.
Some may argue that the quotation marks around the film’s title suggest that it is merely an interpretation. However, Fennell’s film borrows too much from the source material to be thought of as anything other than an adaptation. As much as I tried to see this film as its own entity separate from the novel, at the end of the day it cannot be totally removed from the context of the original work. As hard as Fennell tried to depict Wuthering Heights in her own way, she missed the mark entirely, making a mockery of Brontë’s magnum opus. (Sarah Toman)
2.5 stars out of 5 from Cinelinx:
A gorgeous set design is not enough to make up for a flawed production that badly misinterprets the story Emily Bronte set forth to tell in the 19th century. There are a bare handful of good moments, but it isn't nearly enough to save the film from itself. Should be remembered as a cautionary tale as to how adapting a book can go wrong even with the best of intentions. (Becky O'Brien)
A filmmaker with genuine concern for her characters’ minds, hearts, and bodies alike could have perhaps employed this approach to mine the material for a new and unique interpretation. Fennell, instead, has not created a film but a walking, talking, sexual Pinterest board—maybe a fine Bridgerton fanfic, but no excuse to desecrate a classic. (Avantika Jagdhari)
Fuera de foco (Mexico):
Esta interpretación entiende que el verdadero terror de amar no radica en perder al otro, sino en descubrirse irreversiblemente transformado por ese vínculo.
Y es precisamente en esa devastación emocional donde radica su fuerza, en recordarnos que las historias de amor más memorables no son las que consuelan, sino las que dejan una marca imborrable. (Mónica Castellón) (Translation)
WDIY has an audio review of the film.
1:00 am by M. in , ,    No comments
An alert for today, February 24, a the Brontë Birthplace in Thornton:
Speaker: Charlotte Jones, Education Officer
Tuesday 24th February 6:30pm
Bronte Birthplace, 72-74 Market Street, Thornton, BD13 3HF

Step into the turbulent world of the Brontë sisters and explore why their novels shocked, unsettled, and enthralled 19th‑century readers with our Education Officer, Charlotte Jones. This talk examines how Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall challenged Victorian expectations around morality, gender, class, religion, and emotional restraint.
Filled with passionate heroines, morally complex characters, and unflinching portrayals of desire, anger, and independence, the Brontës’ novels were seen by many critics as dangerous, improper, or even immoral. Why did reviewers struggle to believe such bold, transgressive stories were written by women—and what anxieties did these books provoke?
With the release of the new Wuthering Heights film, this talk offers the perfect chance to look beyond the screen and return to the fierce, unsettling novel that inspired it. We’ll explore how Emily Brontë’s original vision compares with modern interpretations, why filmmakers continue to be drawn to its wild emotional landscape, and what the latest adaptation reveals about the story’s enduring power. Whether you’re coming fresh from the cinema or revisiting the book, this session opens up the raw, radical heart of Wuthering Heights in a whole new way.
An Audible original was recently released:
by Gracie Oddie-James
Audible Originals
Length: 2 hrs and 32 mins
Directed by Mahalia Belo
Produced by Nicole Davis
Starring Daryl McCormack (Good Luck to You, Leo Grande) as Heathcliff; with Arinzé Kene (The Pass), Charlie Rowe (Slow Horses), Gracie Oddie-James (The Lady from the Sea), Sagar Radia (Industry), Raffey Cassidy (The Brutalist) and Tanya Moodie (Silo).

A feverish re-imagining of literature’s most infamous romantic villain.
The Heathcliff we know is obsessive, possessive and cruel, bound and beholden to his childhood love and would-be soulmate Catherine, and their home at Wuthering Heights. But before his descent into monstrous revenge, there were three missing years. A time of possibility, freedom and a different kind of love…
With Cathy’s rejection burning hot in his ears, Heathcliff flees the moors and arrives in London, seeking distraction and oblivion. There he is rescued by Sir Francis Barber, the Black adopted son of Samuel Johnson who urges him to forge his own path. Along the way he meets the reckless gambler, Lord Montgomery and the beautiful courtesan Rhoda Pascal, and begins to chart a path towards fortune, and belonging. In growing closer to Rhoda, he starts to untangle the mystery of who he is, but Cathy's ghostly presence, calling to him like a siren song, draws him ever back to his own dark nature, and the bewildering memories of Wuthering Heights...

Monday, February 23, 2026

Monday, February 23, 2026 7:45 am by Cristina in ,    No comments
Variety shares the weekend's box office.
This weekend at the global box office was the tale of two holdovers as “Wuthering Heights” waltzed to $150 million while “GOAT” hit the $100 million mark.
Director Emerald Fennell’s gothic romantic drama “Wuthering Heights,” which ceded the top spot in North America to “GOAT,” was No. 1 at the international box office with $26.3 million from 76 markets. In a theatrical surprise, the R-rated film has been a bigger draw overseas with ticket sales having climbed to $91.7 million to date. Top foreign territories include the United Kingdom with $22.5 million, Italy with $9.4 million and Australia with $8.3 million. So far, “Wuthering Heights” has grossed $151.7 million worldwide against an $80 million production budget. (Rebecca Rubin)
A columnist from The Daily Tar Heel discusses the Wuthering Heights 2026 in particular and adaptations in general.
Last weekend on Valentine's Day, I sat down at the movie theater with my three best friends from home, celebrating the holiday the best way I saw fit: watching the new “'Wuthering Heights' ” film. I was glued to the screen the moment the scene opened with groaning sounds, and uncontrollable tears fell down my face as the credits rolled almost 2.5 hours later.
So it was much to my surprise when I opened the Letterboxd app once back at home to see the movie only had 2.8/5 stars and a plethora of negative reviews, all with much the same sentiment: Emily Brontë would be disappointed by Emerald Fennell ’s portrayal of her story. [...]
While I didn’t feel this strongly on the topic of titles before I watched “'Wuthering Heights,'” I think movies need to be enjoyed for their simple craft and not whether or not they are exactly like the original source. And frankly, not everyone reads every book ever written. I don’t want to love a movie so deeply and be met with contorted faces and silent judgment, just because I didn’t read the book and notice every difference between the two.
It’s inevitable that a screen adaptation will not maintain every single plot point of its original book, but directors can make a simple fix to avoid total hatred of their productions: just change the name. (Rebecca Savidge)
A contributor to Mamamia argues the case for so-called 'toxic love stories'.
Firstly, let's quickly address whether Wuthering Heights could have existed in its original form — it certainly could, and predictably will again (I foresee a historical limited series adaptation asap), but that doesn't mean Fenell's vision shouldn't have a right to exist either.
But let's face it, would the dating standards of 1847 translate to today? I'd hazard a guess that 2026 audiences wouldn't particularly enjoy watching their internet boyfriend, Jacob Elordi, in his full monstrous glory as Heathcliff, a character who didn't simply use his wife Isabella to torment Cathy, but physically and emotionally abused her in the novel… and murdered her dog.
Audiences certainly wouldn't root for him and Margot Robbie's Catherine after enduring such horrific scenes.
Fennell's story is still a romance — it's just not the type we're used to seeing play out.
For one thing, Heathcliff and Catherine are both largely terrible people. That's just a fact. In many ways, they do deserve each other — if anything, to keep them away from everyone else.
This is the kind of toxic love story that I, personally, can't get enough of. And these kinds of anti-love stories have a place in pop culture — even if they don't fit neatly into the romance box. (Tara Watson)
While Feminism in India argues that 'We Don’t Need Another Romantic Heathcliff: Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” And The Aestheticisation Of Male Violence'.
Ultimately, Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” feels like a ‘cynical co-option‘ of a radical text. The film reaches for mature emotional complexity but lands instead on the simplistic, all-consuming feelings of teenage infatuation. By reducing Brontë’s examination of class structures and racial othering to surface-level eroticism, it sidesteps the very discomfort the novel was designed to elicit.
The film’s poster famously puts the title in quotation marks, perhaps signalling Fennell’s awareness that this is a limited interpretation rather than a faithful adaptation. Yet, in a world where elite male violence is still routinely excused as complicated behaviour, we do not need another “Wuthering Heights” that makes abuse look like a high-fashion editorial. We need adaptations that refuse to make the destruction of human beings look beautiful. We need art that recognises that when violence is aestheticised without political clarity, it ceases to be a critique and becomes an enablement.
Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights”, for all its vibrant visuals and maximalist noise, remains a missed opportunity to address the very real and ugly ghosts of our present moment. (Aryaa Singh)
Some more reviews of the film:

The State Hornet gives it 5.5/10:
Fennell did what she set out to do when making this film. She wanted to make a version of “Wuthering Heights” that reflected what she remembered from reading it for the first time as a teen.
In that regard, this film succeeds as a heart-racing, sweeping dark romance. By thinking about this film as just that, it’s pretty successful. The film depicts the lure and attraction of this doomed romance, even if it’s a bit overplayed. However, to achieve this, it becomes far less interesting than the original novel to the point of making viewers wonder why the film is called “Wuthering Heights” in the first place. (Kristopher Caalim)
Not every film needs to be deep or meaningful, but it would be nice if filmmakers could respect their audience with subtlety and take a commentary further than the superficial every now and again. Fennell instead squandered a golden opportunity to bridge the divide between literature snobs and casual romance enjoyers. I’ll get off my soapbox now, but this movie was not “‘porn’ for women.” It was porn for Emerald Fennell.
Was I successfully rage baited by this “adaptation”? Yes. But Fennell’s superficiality and mishandling of her source’s thematic elements in favor of flashy aesthetics is simply a symptom of a much more serious disease: It is art in the age of TikTok.
TLDR: In the immortalized words of bk on Letterboxd, “Emerald Fennell to film is what Colleen Hoover is to literature.” (Uma Nathan)
Favoring excess over austerity, Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” has a different spirit than Brontë’s novel. The novel’s narrator, Lockwood, says, “They [Catherine and Heathcliff] are afraid of nothing.” But they might be afraid of this film. It is a ghost of their story. (Jason Mulvihill)
1.5 stars out of 5 from Cineralia (in Spanish):
En definitiva, esta versión de Cumbres borrascosas parece realizada para los que disfrutaron de Barbie. Los que busquen verdadera emoción no la encontrarán aquí. (Julio Vallejo) (Translation)
A reader has written to In Common to say they didn't like the film.

A contributor to Her Campus gives Wuthering Heights, the novel, a 10/10. Manchester Evening News and others recommend a trip to Swaledale, a filming location for Wuthering Heights 2026. Cinema Blend reports that on social media, 'Wuthering Heights Fans Have Messages For The Movie Newbies Who Are Finding Out Heathcliff And Cathy Are 'Bad People''. The Brontës' love of pets on AnneBrontë.org.
1:00 am by M. in    No comments
Sarah Gordon's Underdog: The Other Other Brontë opens in Chorley:
Written by Sarah Gordon
Directed by Amber Walsh
Main Stage Chorley Theatre,
Dole Lane, Chorley, Lancashire, PR7 2RL.
February 23rd-28th

Charlotte Brontë has a confession about how one sister became an idol, and the other became known as the third sister. You know the one. No, not that one. The other, other one… Anne.
This is not a story about well-behaved women. This is a story about the power of words. It’s about sisters and sisterhood, love and jealousy, support and competition.
Sarah Gordon’s play is an irreverent retelling of the life and legend of the Brontë sisters, and the story of the sibling power dynamics that shaped their uneven rise to fame.
Lancashire Post has more information:
 Director Amber Walsh says “through sharp humour and a knowing look at how history picks its favourites, the play looks at sibling rivalry, creativity, and the erasure of women writers from history.”
“This is not a story about well-behaved women, it’s about the power of words, love and jealousy” (Ian Robinson)
 A new retelling of Wuthering Heights:
by Essie Fox
Orenda Books
ISBN:  9781917764421
February 2026

The greatest tragic love story ever told – but this time, Catherine tells it herself. In Catherine, Essie Fox breathes new life into Wuthering Heights, transforming a gothic masterpiece into a haunting confession of obsession, madness and love that even death cannot end.
With a nature as wild as the moors she loves to roam, Catherine Earnshaw grows up alongside Heathcliff, a foundling her father rescued from the streets of Liverpool. Their fierce, untamed bond deepens as they grow – until Mr Earnshaw’s death leaves Hindley, Catherine’s brutal brother, in control and Heathcliff reduced to servitude.
Desperate to protect him, Catherine turns to Edgar Linton, the handsome heir to Thrushcross Grange. She believes his wealth might free Heathcliff from cruelty – but her choice is fatally misunderstood, and their lives spiral into a storm of passion, jealousy and revenge.
Now, eighteen years later, Catherine rises from her grave to tell her story – and seek redemption.
Essie Fox’s Catherine reimagines Wuthering Heights with beauty and intensity – a haunting, atmospheric retelling that brings new life to a timeless classic and lays bare the dark heart of an immortal love.

Sunday, February 22, 2026


Next, we turn to The Sunday Times Bestsellers week list, because in the Fiction paperbacks section we found Wuthering Heights in the number 8, which is truly astonishing.

According to The Mirror, Whitby is "UK town where every day is like a scene from Wuthering Heights":
A view of Whitby Abbey framed by a whalebone arch under a cloudy sky, showcasing historical architecture in North Yorkshire, England.
Sometimes, when a storm hits the UK, rain batters the pavements and wind whips the trees, it's easy to feel swept up in the kind of awe-inspiring conditions that helped Emily Brontë to write her classic novel, Wuthering Heights.
There is a little town in Yorkshire, 100miles from Cathy and Heathcliff's home, but steeped in as much Gothic drama, where every day feels like you've tumbled into such dark Victorian melodrama. (...)
If you walk along the coast from the nearby villages of Saltmoore and Sandsend, the gothic ruins stay within your sightline. Lucky hikers will get to see the sea fog - which locals used to believe was the fiery breath of a dragon - come in to cover the abbey. You'll feel like you're trekking the same paths Heathcliff did as he searched for Catherine's ghost, not least because Emerald Fennell's new film was shot about two hours away, in the Yorkshire Dales. (...)
The most remarkable sight comes when you walk back towards Whitby, as when the fog clears, the Abbey can be seen looming through a gap between the cliffs. It's terrifying and awe-inspiring all at once. I felt drawn towards the ruins, much as Cathy is drawn to Heathcliff or as an entranced Lucy is drawn to Dracula. How could anyone resist such a terrible sight? (Yasmin Vince)
Some American students visit Hampstead for the first time in Ham & High:
I was advised to visit Hill Garden and I’m so glad I did. The sun shone down on the terrace, and it was a nice place to sit and gather my thoughts after having walked around for a couple of hours. I’ve been reading Wuthering Heights in preparation for the new movie that’s coming out in a few days, and I couldn’t help but feel like Hill Garden came straight out of a Brontë novel. (Helena Sauriat)
Elmira Tanatarova in the Daily Mail rewrites the Brontë story in pure Daily-Mail-tabloid style. Are you prepared? Here it comes with some helpful comments from our own:
The brutal Brontës! Wuthering Heights author Emily beat up her dog, toothless Charlotte spitefully held back Anne's career and all three died close to their 30th birthdays... not to mention their opium addict brother.
NO TEETH, NO MANNERS, NO MERCY: THE BRONTË SISTERS' HORRIFYING SECRET FACES REVEALED!
The famous family of writers endured everything from opium addiction to water contaminated by a cemetery, as well as a string of tragically early deaths that saw three out of four siblings - including their only brother, Branwell - deceased within a year of one another, all close to their 30th birthdays.
And their precocious beginnings are almost as well documented as their 'spiteful' attitudes, with biographers remarking on the sisters' history with animal abuse, disdain of young children and 'anger management issues'.
As revealed by literary critic Claire Harman in Charlotte Brontë: A Life, there was also the matter of the sisters' 'plain' and 'poorly' appearance.
According to the writer, Emily had a large protruding tooth, while Charlotte had hardly any teeth at all.
Undersized and undernourished, she was described by her fellow novelist, Elizabeth Gaskell, as having a forehead that was 'square, broad and rather overhanging'.
Emily, for one, while posted at Law Hill School in Halifax, reportedly said she 'preferred the company of the house dog' over her pupils, as shared by author Juliet Barker.
SHE WOULD RATHER CUDDLE A DOG THAN TEACH YOUR CHILD — AND SHE WASN'T SORRY! 
And while not as combustible as her sister, Charlotte wasn't to be trifled with either. When she taught at a girls' school in Brussels, she gave any student who displeased her a tremendous tongue-lashing.
'If those girls knew how I loathed their company, they would not seek mine as much as they do,' she wrote in her journal.
In fact, several of her pupils seemed to have loathed her as much as she loathed them - one even threw a stone at her.
SHE CALLED HER OWN SISTER'S MASTERPIECE "A MISTAKE" — CHARLOTTE BRONTË'S UNHINGED BETRAYAL EXPOSED!
Charlotte's family, it seems, were not immune from her criticisms. In an introduction to her sister Anne's second novel, Charlotte shared that 'Wildfell Hall it hardly appears to me desirable to preserve'.
'The choice of subject in that work is a mistake – it was too little consonant with the character – tastes and ideas of the gentle, retiring, inexperienced writer,' she continued. 
Historians have dubbed the jabs an attempt to 'consign her sister’s novel to oblivion'.
Emily's temperament was also well known and has been a topic of discussion for historians - despite claims that Charlotte had tried to 'clean up' her sister's image posthumously.  
And so on....

But this is not the worst sensationalist headline we read today. The Daily Star is not only concerned about the hordes of tourists descending upon Haworth... 
Sex-mad doggers are romping in the countryside that inspired Wuthering Heights
As new raunchy film version of Wuthering Heights has just hit cinemas randy revellers are getting frisky where the Brontë sisters penned their acclaimed books.
And we can reveal that randy revellers are getting frisky where the Brontë sisters penned their acclaimed books. There’s plenty of bodice-ripping action as lust-crazed couples invade the moors around the picturesque parish of Haworth for bawdy al-fresco frolics. (John Ward)
The New York Post highlights that "Wuthering Heights’ lives up to the hype, takes No. 1 at box office for second Friday in a row". Free Ex columnist Louise Perry and senior newsletter editor Emma Camp chat about the film in this Wall Street Journal clip. The South China Morning Post introduces Charlotte Mellington, who plays young Cathy in the film. The Sun interviews Jacob Elordi on, you know, hot scenes and all that:
And Jacob reveals there was ­sizzling chemistry between him and Margot, who plays love-struck Cathy, from the moment they met.
He said: “It’s like, ‘Action’ and it’s like a horse at the race track — straight out of the gates.”
But he insists that sex scenes are actually “no different to choreo- graphing a fight scene or a dance sequence”, explaining: “It’s super- technical, especially the scene where, it’s not a sex scene, but where I’m on top [of Margot] with my hands — that’s choreographed because, in that kind of light, you only have so much space to move. (Nadia Cohen)

A (Leeds) reader of The Sunday Times defends Jacob Elordi's Yorkshire accent in the film.

Nicolette Jones in The Times argues that
Most film adaptations of Wuthering Heights leave half the story untold. And while Emerald Fennell’s steamy adaptation may have caused a surge in sales of Emily Brontë’s novel, it is very much a different creation. The Easy Classics version follows the original far more literally.
Still, more reviews of the film:
However, the true failing of “Wuthering Heights” lies in its unwillingness to offer anything genuinely new. We are, perhaps, well past the cultural moment where explicit sex alone can pass for provocation. The shock value has dulled, and what remains feels curiously dated. The omission of the novel’s second half, a section frequently sacrificed in screen adaptations of Wuthering Heights, further positions this film as just another iteration: more polished, glamorous and decidedly raunchier than its predecessors, yet reluctant to meaningfully reinterpret its source material. The whirlwind sexual crescendo ultimately achieves little. Cathy’s fate is preordained and her death carries no tragic inevitability when the emotional groundwork has been hollowed out. 
Gothic literature thrives on transgression and repression: on the past’s refusal to remain buried. Strip away those tensions, and what remains is superficial. Here, the Gothic is reduced to aesthetic texture: wind-swept moors, crimson palettes, feverish bodies, a dark synth-pop soundtrack. Its spirit—moral rot, psychological cruelty, generational obsession—is conspicuously, and regrettably, absent. In the end, while “Wuthering Heights” may dazzle the eye, it hollowly fails to evoke Brontë’s corrosive psychological and social commentary in favour of lavish spectacle, sexualised shock, and aestheticised cruelty. (Hannah Tang in Strand Magazine)

I am a deeply proud Northern lass, and not many media pieces ever acknowledge our little corner of the world. Emily Brontë and her sisters were deeply inspired by the Moors in which they resided. It influenced their writing and greatly impacted their local community for what is now well over the past 170 years. It saddens me that Emily’s deeply intelligent work is being passed off as what is essentially explicit fanfiction (seriously, what was up with kneading the bread?) If this piece wins any awards, I will be questioning Hollywood’s, obviously declining, sanity. (Lily Orton in HerCampus
 Does all this contemporary hindsight into the fabric of Brontë’s epic novel make for a quintessential “Wuthering Heights?” Even allowing that such a thing were possible, probably not. While it presents a stylishly crafted and thrillingly cinematic take on this complex classic, richly enhanced by a superb and adventurous cast, it’s not likely to satisfy anyone looking for a faithful rendition, nor does it reveal a new angle from which the “romance” at its center looks anything other than toxic — indeed, it almost fetishizes the dysfunction. Even without the thorny debate around Heathcliff’s racial identity, there’s plenty here to prompt purists and revisionists alike to find fault with Fennell’s approach.
Yet for those looking for a new window into to this perennial classic, and who are comfortable with the radical flourish for which Fennell is already known, it’s an engrossing and intellectually stimulating exploration of this iconic story in a way that exchanges comfortable familiarity for unpredictable chaos — and for cinema fans, that’s more than enough reason to give “Wuthering Heights” a chance. (John Paul King in Los Angeles Blade)
 Robbie puts in the worst performance of her career by turning Catherine into a bratty, unbearable hypocrite; meanwhile, Elordi’s script must have only said, ”Stare maniacally”.
The film also struggles with its presentation. So much of it feels like a scene from Alice in Wonderland, but without the charm. It’s drab and gross.
Even the scenes in Edgar Linton’s mansion, which is supposed to be a grander-than-life setting, have an unsettling, unnatural sheen. It’s like the entire film was shot on a stage, but instead of sets, the film chooses to have a nasty greenscreen backdrop.
Funnell committed a terrible practical joke by releasing this film on the weekend of Valentine’s Day. Every couple expecting an intimate, romantic depiction of a famous novel will instead be subjected to a cruel and unusual parody.
The film is a miserable experience and is the first truly horrible movie of 2026.
Wuthering Heights is showing in cinemas around the country. (Jarryd Rowley in Region)

 Then again, maybe Fennell is just having a laugh at our expense. If you want to watch a spiritually faithful adaptation of Wuthering Heights, complete with sexually charged graveyard visits, a decades-long real estate scheme, and uh, yearning in spades, Saltburn is already that movie. It’s hard not to suspect that Fennell, in her clever and cynical way, just wanted to see if she could get away with turning fantasy casting plucked from the recesses of Tumblr into a major motion picture. Because the only other explanation I can conjure for the gooey mess that is “Wuthering Heights” is that Fennell doesn’t realize her promising artistic vision has been cuckooed by something all too ordinary instead. (Nicole Penn in The Dispatch)

 The film "Wuthering Heights" is an anti-love story that goes for visual feast and shock factor with the way the characters fulfilled their sexual fantasies rather than an exploration of a fierce love that defies class and convention. (Rachelle Siazon in Philippine Entertainment Portal)
“Cumbres borrascosas”, el libro, el clásico, no se parece a nada porque lleva los vínculos al límite. 
Heathcliff no es un héroe trágico: es la violencia que una sociedad ejerce sobre él y la que él mismo reproduce, implacable. Catherine queda atrapada entre su deseo y la necesidad de encajar en un orden que la asfixia-
Por eso el libro sigue ahí, embrujándonos a todos, y mucho más arriesgado que esta adaptación que le baja el voltaje y la convierte en una versión vistosa, hot y descremada. (Verónica Bonacchi in Diario Rio Negro) (Translation)
 Brontë no buscaba la perfección romántica; creó un universo de pasión desmedida, de frustración y de tormento. Un amor áspero, inquietante, que deja el alma en desasosiego. La película, en cambio, parece desconfiar de la inteligencia del espectador, como si fuera necesario subrayarlo todo, explicarlo todo, hacerlo más evidente —incluso a través de escenas prescindibles— para garantizar su comprensión.
El final, además, da la impresión de cerrar definitivamente la puerta a la continuación de la historia, como si la segunda generación nunca hubiera existido.
En conclusión, si deseas disfrutar plenamente de la película, quizá sea mejor no haber leído la novela. Pero si lo que buscas es comprender la intensidad, la oscuridad y la complejidad del amor que imaginó Emily Brontë, entonces acude al libro… y no esperes demasiado de la película. (María Beatriz Muñoz Ruiz in Diario Sabemos) (Translation)
 El resultado es una película que traiciona el espíritu del libro en nombre de una supuesta autenticidad. Porque el corazón de Cumbres borrascosas no es el sexo; es la imposibilidad. Es la herida abierta de un amor que no encuentra lugar en el mundo. Es el resentimiento que fermenta durante años. Es la crueldad que nace del abandono. La novela es violenta, pero su violencia es moral, psicológica, casi metafísica. Aquí, en cambio, la violencia se sexualiza. El dolor se erotiza. Y el espectador asiste a una saturación de escenas íntimas que no construyen personaje ni conflicto: solo ocupan tiempo.
Y, sin embargo, la película ofrece una paradoja que la redime parcialmente. En su tramo final, cuando el frenesí carnal se agota y los cuerpos dejan de ocupar el centro del encuadre, algo cambia. De repente, el silencio vuelve a tener peso. Las palabras, esas grandes ausentes durante buena parte del metraje, recuperan su lugar. Los personajes hablan, se enfrentan, se reprochan, se reconocen. Y entonces, casi milagrosamente, la película encuentra la profundidad que había estado buscando a golpes de piel.
Es en ese último acto -cuando el deseo ya no se expresa en sudor sino en diálogo- donde asoma la grandeza que el conjunto prometía. Las miradas pesan más que los cuerpos. Las frases hieren más que cualquier escena explícita. El dolor se verbaliza y, al hacerlo, adquiere una dimensión trágica que conecta, por fin, con el espíritu de la novela. Resulta irónico que la adaptación alcance su mejor momento precisamente cuando renuncia a su estrategia más insistente. (Amanda Ramos in El Plural) (Translation)
Mariana Enríquez also reviews the film for Página 12 (Argentina). And she goes straight to the major problems of the film:
 Una adaptación es una lectura, y las lecturas se definen no sólo por lo que se conserva del original, sino por lo que se elimina. Esa chica de 14 años, si le creemos a Fennell, quería más sexo, y por qué no. Cathy y Heathcliff se lo merecen. Pero hay muchas otras cosas que llevan al infierno en Cumbres Borrascosas, y acá es donde aparecen los lectores con el texto en la mano, porque esas otras cosas son esenciales y no están en la película, ni en texto ni en subtexto.
Fennell decide que Heathcliff no sea un abusador, un golpeador y un hombre cruel. ¿Por qué? Heathcliff, de origen incierto, es una víctima de abusos, está tan dañado que se transformó en un monstruo vengativo y solo se hizo rico para destruir a quienes lo rechazaron, maltrataron, degradaron y aislaron. El Heathcliff de Fennell recibe una paliza, pide permiso hasta para besar y jamás resulta peligroso. ¿Por qué llamarlo Heathcliff, entonces? ¿Si no se suicida, es Ofelia la de Hamlet? Fennell también cambia a la esposa de Heathcliff, Isabella, que en la película tiene una relación sadomasoquista con él, más o menos consentida, y chistosa. Elegir como alivio cómico a una mujer en cuatro patas, atada a la chimenea de lo caliente que está con Jacob Elordi es una provocación, por supuesto. Pero resulta que en la novela, esa mujer, después de ser golpeada, y (seguro) violada y encerrada, logra escapar con siete meses de embarazo y tira su anillo a la chimenea de marras, y esto en 1847, cuando la esposa era propiedad del marido. Es muy radical. ¿Por qué convertirla en alguien de quien reírse?
Los ejemplos pueden seguir, pero la decisión es clara: la tragedia está aplanada y sustituida por la historia de dos enamorados pasionales separados por las circunstancias y enloquecidos de deseo. En la novela, Heathcliff no vuelve en plan recuperar a su amada, regresa como una tormenta de odio que condensa y perpetúa toda la injusticia social que provocó su daño irreversible. No es cuestión de purismo.(...)
A veces, ser ligero y provocador es un alivio, es frescura y fiesta, una forma de desafío al poder. Y otras veces, como en estas Cumbres borrascosas, esa ligereza resulta hueca y reaccionaria. (Translation)

La visione di Fennell, innegabilmente personale, piena di gusto per l’iperbole e di forte intensità visiva, si scontra in definitiva con ciò che rende 'Cime tempestose' un classico: la sua capacità di trasformare dolore e desiderio in un’esperienza narrativa che non si esaurisce nello sguardo ma scava nelle viscere del lettore. Così alla fine, uscendo dalla sala, resta la sensazione di aver assistito a qualcosa di intenso ma incompleto. Come se il film avesse scelto di incarnare la tempesta, rinunciando deliberatamente a mostrarci le sue conseguenze. (Dario Vassallo in PrimoCanale) (Translation)

Filmink rescues a 1959 Australian TV adaptation of Wuthering Heights (likely lost):
The best -known adaptation (until this year) is probably the 1939 film with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon – although AIP tried their luck with Timothy Dalton in 1970, and Cliff Richard did a musical Heathcliff, and there was a very respected 1953 BBC television version starring Richard Todd from a script by Nigel (Quatermass Experiment) Kneale. In fact, that BBC version was so respected that in 1959 the ABC decided “wow let’s use 1700 pounds to shoot this script even though it would be cheaper just to import a kinescope of the BBC production and we could have spent the rest of the funds on shooting a something local.” Incidentally, the BBC filmed Kneale’s script again in 1962 with Claire Bloom and Australia’s own Keith Michell in the leads – so, even if Kneale wrote it very hastily, by his own admission, he did pretty well out of it.
We’ll be upfront – we haven’t seen the 1959 ABC TV film of Wuthering Heights. It’s entirely possible that no copy survives – but we’ve read a lot about it and reproduce what knowledge we’ve ascertained below. (...)
The driving force behind the production was director Alan Burke, who specifically asked to do it. Burke was a competent director and from all accounts a very nice man, but like many Australian directors of his time (and now) he really wanted to be directing foreign scripts rather than local ones. (...)
Burke’s production of Wuthering Heights starred deejay Lew Luton as Heathcliff, Delia Williams as Cathy, Annette Andre as Isabella, and Richard Davies as Hindley. It was shot in Sydney and was mostly done live with some prerecorded segments. (Read more) (Stephen Vagg)
The Telegraph & Argus talks about the jet-setting trend (to travel to the real-world locations behind beloved films and television series), but it is basically an advert for the Wuthering Heights movie Airbnb at Holdsworth House. BuzzFeed lists film adaptations that "That Actually Slap Unlike That Trainwreck "Wuthering Heights" Movie We All Suffered Through":
Jane Eyre 2011
If you’re looking to put more of the psychological in psychological romance, this movie should do it. It’s what Fennell’s movie should have had, with more book accuracy and a weird plot twist. (Hannah Trimble)
NewsNine also includes Jane Eyre among "books that capture stormy love as intense as Wuthering Heights". QueVer (Spain) recommends Wuthering Heights 2009 as one of the most faitthful to the novel. RAI PlaySound announces the contents of its programme Racconti d'autore (RAI Radio 1):
Ragioni e sentimenti - radici dei classici e narrazione contemporanea - è il tema di “Incontri d’Autore”, la trasmissione coordinata da Francesca Cosentino, a cura della redazione Cultura e Spettacoli del Giornale Radio Rai, in onda domenica 22 febbraio su Rai Radio1 alle 00.40, per parlare di libri, di letteratura e di tutto quanto ci gira intorno. (...) Natalia Augias racconta della biografia di Charlotte Bronte scritta da Eleonor Houghton. Classici e cinema, le tante versioni di "Cime tempestose” - il servizio è di Baba Richerme. (Translation)

The Brussels Brontë Blog posts a summary of a recent talk by Jones Hayden, who set out to prove that the Brontë sisters had a genuine sense of humour, drawing on comic moments, witty character names, and laugh-out-loud exchanges from across their novels.

The luxury bath, body and lifestyle US brand Margot Elena has also a Wuthering Heights collection:
  • Never Leave Eau de Parfum – A TokyoMilk fine fragrance inspired by Wuthering Heights themes, designed as a moody, romantic perfume.
  • Be With Me Always Eau de Parfum – Another TokyoMilk perfume, created to evoke enduring, passionate love and literary drama.
  • ​Drive Me Mad Eau de Parfum – A TokyoMilk scent with a more intense, tempestuous character, echoing the novel’s darker emotions.
  • ​Come Undone Eau de Parfum – A TokyoMilk fragrance meant to feel emotional and unraveled, matching the book’s tragic tone.
  • ​Dead Sexy Eau de Parfum (“Wuthering Heights” edition) – A special TokyoMilk version of the existing Dead Sexy scent, elevated and priced as a more luxurious perfume.
  • ​Kiss Me Again Bathing Salts & Bubble Bath Duo – Lollia set that pairs scented bath salts and bubble bath for a full, romantic soak ritual.
  • ​Kiss Me Again Bubble Bath – Lollia bubble bath in decorative packaging, for a fragrant, bookish tub experience.
  • ​Kiss Me Again Bathing Salts – Lollia bath salts to sprinkle in the bath, adding scent and a spa-like feel.
  • ​Wish Eau de Parfum (“Wuthering Heights” edition) – Lollia perfume in the classic sweet “Wish” scent, reimagined in Wuthering Heights–themed packaging.
  • Wish Bubbling Bath – Lollia bubbling bath with the same “Wish” fragrance, for a scented, foaming bath.
  • ​Wish Luminary – A Lollia candle in the “Wish” scent, adding a warm, atmospheric glow while you read.
  • ​Wish Handcreme & Key – A Lollia hand cream in the “Wish” fragrance with a decorative key charm, meant as a small daily luxury or gift.
  • ​Petite Treat Handcreme Discovery Set – A Lollia mini hand cream set featuring several scents, including ones tied into the collection, so you can sample multiple fragrances.
And now, the podcast (and this one, listen to it at your own risk)
After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal

Wuthering Heights, written by Emily Brontë in 1847, depicts a gothic world full of violence and passion, set against the wild Yorkshire Moors.
So how did the daughter of a clergyman create such a story? How was it received at the time? And what darkness and intrigue happened in the Brontê's lives that could have influenced such stories?
With a new Wuthering Heights film being released, Anthony and Maddy are exploring that world with you in today's episode.
It’s one of relentless death and tragedy, wild creativity, and supernatural belief, all to the backdrop of an industrial Victorian England.
If you're interested to find out more, you can watch the documentary Death at the Parsonage: The Brontês, on HistoryHit.com.
This episode was edited and produced by Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Freddy Chick.

Saturday, February 21, 2026

More comments or reviews about Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights:
I have two theories: one, I think people have strong negative opinions about its director, whom they see as privileged and chronically off-key when it comes to stories that contend with class; and two, I think people firmly made up their minds about it before they saw it and I think this because everyone keeps accusing Fennell of turning this beloved piece of gothic lit a “horned-up bodice ripper” even though all the sex scenes are fully clothed.
Also, I am pretty sure the marketing of “Wuthering Heights” as “the greatest love story of all time” is tongue firmly in cheek. As in the book, the relationships are toxic and you’ll hate everyone in this movie.
I keep encountering (not incorrect) criticism that this rich text has been taken and dumbed down; there is a lot that has been left out, including the second half of the book, and that has left people wanting. I saw one critic call it anti-intellectual. (Jen Zoratti in Winnipeg Free Press)

Sin embargo, me pareció realmente frustrante que la película parezca detenerse justo antes del abismo. Coquetea con el melodrama criminal, incluso con el horror, pero finalmente regresa al terreno de la tragedia clásica. Después de alejarse tanto del espíritu de Brontë, me quedé con la sensación de que pudo haber ido todavía más lejos y convertirse en algo completamente nuevo, más retorcido y, quizá, más memorable. Pensaba que ya que se alejaba tanto del material original, merecería la pena, pero me ha dejado con ganas de más. (Belén Prieto in Espinof) (Translation)
Por supuesto que no todas las películas ni ninguna forma de arte está obligada a “decir algo”, bajar un mensaje, una idea o una filosofía. Su único objetivo puede ser entretener y contar una buena historia, del género que sea. Pero si ni siquiera se puede encontrar eso, es una decepción. 
Quizás por eso, el personaje de Nelly en esta versión de Cumbres borrascosas sea de los más fuertes. Cuando en un punto del relato el personaje quiere que todo lo que está sucediendo entre Heathcliff y Catherine termine de una buena vez y frustrada, hace todo lo que puede para cortar el vínculo, es difícil no sentirse identificado. (Nicolás Tabárez in El Observador) (Translation)

 Bad films are one thing, but to introduce an entire generation to Brontë’s brilliant novel with this nonsense is a travesty. The only redeeming feature in the whole sorry affair is the score by Charlie XCX. Mesmerising and discordant, it alone reflects the novel’s mood, with a darkness that should have been swirling across the moors into Cathy and Heathcliff’s blood. Unfortunately for the film-goer this mood remains confined to the music. Perhaps if Fennell had followed the example of Kate Bush and condensed her movie into a three-minute music video, she may have been more successful. (Lucy Nichols in Counterfire)
 In the film, though, Heathcliff is white. And worse, the two main impediments to the romance plot are people of color. Instead of a story about the brutalizing force of racism, Fennell gives us a story about how an effete Asian man (Edgar Linton, played by Shazad Latif) and a scheming Asian woman (Nelly Dean, played by Hong Chau) separate the destined white lovers. 
I doubt this is exactly what Fennell meant to say. But Heathcliff’s skin color is very apparent in the book and has certainly been much discussed in academic and pop culture criticism. A director smart enough to understand and respond to so many of the film’s themes could have, and should have, engaged with its racial aspects as well. The fact that she didn’t mars the film irreparably. (Noah Bertlatsky in Chicago Reader)
This book was quite literally shaved down to bits and pieces, appealing to the mass media. To do that, this movie becomes overtly sexual, simple in concept, and purely aesthetic. 
Don’t get me wrong, the soundtrack is good, and the cinematography is beautiful. But this isn’t ‘Wuthering Heights’. 
Every time this movie is called that, I feel Emily Brontë roll over in her grave. (Ronin Vasquez in HerCampus)
 However, I truly cannot shake the feeling that Fennell clung to Brontë's ‘Wuthering Heights’ as an excuse to use the beautiful backdrops of Yorkshire and the complex, twisted love story of Cathy and Heathcliff to create something nicely wrapped in time for Valentine's Day.
I think if it had been its own movie - inspired by but not dictated by - the title and story of Wuthering Heights, it could have been an excellent watch. It didn't need to be an adaptation of Brontë's book; therefore, it didn't need to split characters into civilised and uncivilised purely by accent. It didn't really need to be set in Yorkshire at all. (Lyra Auld in Yorkshire Live)
 Never before now have I felt so uncomfortable during the process of watching a movie, but I would be remiss not to mention the film’s limited redeeming qualities. The cinematography, much like Fennell’s other works, is impressive on occasion. The soundtrack of “Wuthering Heights,” produced by artist Charli xcx, is listenable in a vacuum, though its poor placement within the movie often acts to the scene’s tonal detriment.
1/5 – If looking for a good romance, a good adaptation or a good film, look elsewhere.
I could not recommend this film under any circumstances. Especially if you happen to be a fan of Emily Brontë’s novel, stay away by all means. There are far better romances, and far better films in theaters currently. (Foster Mayhall in The Auburn Plainsman)
 If you hold any kind of literary purity, then “Wuthering Heights” is not for you. But we don’t need another stuffy adaptation of a 19th century gothic romance, and it’s much better and more accessible to have what Fennell gives: a modernized feminist remix of Brontë’s classic that incorporates modern sexual sensibility into the classic story.
Fennell, whose previous work includes Promising Young Woman (2020) and Saltburn (2023), seems to think that subtlety is for cowards, and while that approach would not work for a typical Wuthering Heights adaptation, it certainly works for this one. “Wuthering Heights” is so trashy it almost becomes goofy, but for the audience it’s aiming for and for its commitment to the tone it’s striking, it is very good trash. (Jim Hunter in Tristate Homepage)
 It's a "spectacle" of the highest order, but beneath the gorgeous gowns and the "bodice-ripping" sex scenes, some might find the heart of the story has been traded for pure, unadulterated "ragebait" provocation.
Is it a masterpiece? Probably not. Is it a "must-watch" cinematic event that will have everyone talking at the water cooler on Monday? Absolutely.
Fennell has crafted a "Wuthering Heights" for the Instagram generation: high on atmosphere, drenched in desire, and utterly unapologetic about its own excesses. (New Straits Times)

 There are a number of elements that make Bronte’s novel a commanding literary presence. It’s about personal trauma, spousal cheating, paternal abuse, jealousy, violence, anger, and outcasts from a society that believes in walls between the classes. In the case of the book, one of the walls is bleak and utterly racist. Did Fennell misinterpret the novel? I find that doubtful. The answer is that she is a fearless director who willingly marches to the beat of her own drum. Her talent is prodigious. Ultimately, Fennell’s missteps mean “Wuthering Heights” isn’t compelling enough to wholeheartedly recommend. (Michael Calleri in The Daily Star)

The film's hair and make-up designer Siân Miller, shares her approach to crafting Cathy's looks in Harper's Bazaar. Nine, Chilango recommend reading Jane Eyre if you loved Wuthering Heights. Infobae talks about when Wuthering Heights as published under the pseudonym Ellis Bell...well, the website says Ellis Bay. Fama (México) talks about three of the Mexican telenovelas that adapted (sort of) Wuthering Heights: Encadenados (1988, 180 episodes), Triunfo del Amor (2010, 176 episodes), Lo que la Vida me Robó (2013, 197 episodes. Purewow gives you 'Wuthering Heights'-Inspired Pieces to get Margot Robbie's look.

Andi Zeisler in Salon connects the Gen Z increasing love of yearning with Wuthering Heights:

Generationally, the Zs don’t seem to share much common ground with “Wuthering Heights” author Emily Brontë. But the 1847 novel, her only published work, could be considered the ur-text of yearning. So it makes sense that members of Gen Z are among those most amped for “Saltburn” writer-director Emerald Fennell’s new adaptation of “Wuthering Heights,” which opened just in time, the trailer makes sure to note, for Valentine’s Day. (...)
There might even be a case to be made that Emily Brontë herself found yearning preferable to a flesh-and-blood love; it’s definitely one reason why many Brontë fans were salty that 2022’s fictionalized biopic “Emily” retconned the origin story so that Brontë herself had an obsessive love affair. What if this iteration of “Wuthering Heights” exists precisely because it’s comforting to think the happiest ending is made possible by a nonexistent beginning? Would that really be so bad? I don’t think so, but it also doesn’t matter: In times this uncertain, yearning doesn’t have to signal the absence of something real.
Sophie Gilbert in The Atlantic, on the other hand, thinks that the film is part of the current trend of infantilizing everything (everyone is 12, now):
In some ways, that Fennell’s Wuthering Heights is this vacuous and one-dimensional feels like progress. Male directors get to make big, unserious epics all the time. (“How many times have you watched Top Gun: Maverick?” I asked my husband last night. “This month?” he replied.) Fennell, whose film made $83 million at the global box office during opening weekend, is at least proving, with sticky aplomb, how starved we as a culture are for romance. Margot Robbie, the movie’s co-star and one of its producers, has shrugged off mixed reviews; she told Vogue Australia, “I believe you should make movies for the people who are going to buy tickets to see the movies. It’s as simple as that. I love working with Emerald because she always prioritizes an emotional experience over a heady idea.” In other words, Wuthering Heights is simply giving the people what they want. And the people are 12.
Collider goes to the box office results of the film:
The movie's official Rotten Tomatoes score has been in free-fall. It debuted in the low-70s, but has now dropped into "rotten" territory for the first time in its run. Wuthering Heights is currently sitting at a 59% score, with a critics' consensus that reads, "Liberally adapting Emily Brontë's classic story with a heavy dose of carnality and chic stylization, Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights might not be the stuff of high literature, but it is a visually vibrant pleasure." (...)
On the eve of entering its second weekend of release, Wuthering Heights passed the coveted $100 million mark at the worldwide box office. Most impressively, the domestic-to-overseas ratio is quite encouraging; the movie has grossed $45 million stateside and another $68 million from international markets for a cumulative worldwide haul of nearly $120 million. (Rohan Naahar)
Daily Mail continues to announce the tourism apocalypse descending over Haworth:
Local traders told the Daily Mail how they are drawing up plans for an unprecedented influx of day-trippers and holidaymakers from around the world - which experts estimate will bring in well over one million visitors by the end of the summer.
Not everyone seems happy. There are mutterings of 'overtourism' while the village's steep and narrow streets have long been plagued with parking chaos and traffic gridlock.
One local historian has also highlighted how some bewildered visitors have shown up assuming the village - which is home to 6,259 residents - is 'not real' believing it to be 'some sort of Disneyland'. (Mark Branagan)
Now, reviews of Charli XCX's album:
 Charli’s 12-track album is haunting and spellbinding. It’s also full of different ways to die because your other half has either left you, might leave you, or has you so dick-drunk and trauma-bonded that you’re spiritually flatlining. I’m obsessed. 
On every track, I can feel myself transforming into a lovesick British woman on the verge of losing her sanity because she doesn’t have a job, responsibilities, or literally anything else to think about besides this guy. (Complimentary.) So let’s rank the very best ways to die at the hands of your tall, dark, handsome, and equally distressed lover, who ideally has an accent, just as Emily Brontë would have wanted. (Lauren Tousignant in Jezebel)
 Coming off the release of her global phenomenon album “Brat”, Charli XCX has returned with a new studio album titled “Wuthering Heights”, named after the Emily Brontë romance novel from 1847. This album also serves as the official soundtrack for the movie starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, which was released this past Friday, February 13th.
For fans of Charli’s older music, this is absolutely a different style than her usual hyperpop, club, and dance music, yet it still feels very on-brand for her as an artist.
Featuring a very harsh, classical string section in almost every song on the album, this was crafted with the movie's time period heavily in mind, while being sprinkled in with Charli’s usual auto-tune styled vocals, and some occasional echoey, atmospheric sounds. (Nick Myers in Penn State Student Media)
The Torch thinks that Jane Eyre is a book that every college student should read:
“Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë contains the original 1847 “girl boss.” It is a foundational Gothic novel, but above all, it is a timeless example of a coming of age story. 
We follow Jane across 20 years of her life, from her time at an oppressive boarding school to ultimate self-discovery. She encounters several obstacles along the way, but consistently prioritizes her freedom. A romance is a major plotline in the novel, but it is always clear that it is primarily Jane’s story as an individual. 
“Jane Eyre” serves as an inspiring tale of perseverance and growth, encouraging women to choose themselves when necessary. She is a relatable heroine that modern readers will love and get to know deeply. (Alexandra Prettitore)
The Brontë Sisters UK publishes a video arguing how Wuthering Heights's perception changes as you get older and re-read it. On the Behind the Glass podcast 
Mia and Sam are joined by Professor Corinne Fowler. Corinne is an Honorary Professor of Colonialism and Heritage at the University of Leicester and author of Our Island Stories: Country Walks Through Colonial Britain.
We chat about the Museum's 2026 exhibition, The Colonial Brontës, which Corinne has co-curated; discussing how Empire influenced the Brontës' writing and the origins of Emily's character Heathcliff...